Somewhere to write, discuss, reflect, ponder, muse and mull over life, stuff, things and anything that takes my fancy.
I learnt today that ‘Jenny’ of the Hong Kong Jenny Side-Party fame, passed away in February at the grand old age of 92!
For those of you with a Royal Naval connection, Jenny and her ‘troop’ were as much Hong Kong as was the Peak Tram and the New Territories.
The Telegraph has a very good obituary today about Jenny and her life with the Royal Navy in Hong Kong.
A fascinating individual, who I am sure had many a tale to tell.
It seems that the Government is intent on turning us all into spies with their recently announced ‘enhanced’ anti-terrorist campaign.
I was in the sleepy town of Ashbourne over the weekend and as I always do, tuned into the local radio station to see what was happening around and about.
Apart from the local shop adverts and reports on rural happenings, I was struck by the level of Anti-Terrorism announcements that were being made. “Did a new neighbour move in next door and if they’re acting suspiciously? Report them! Have you seen people taking photos of CCTV cameras? Report them!” were just two of the statements made; twice in one hour!
I also notice on Classic FM today, that they are running an advert “that’s the sound of a bomb not going off at a dance party” because someone rang the anti-terror hotline!
I’m all for being vigilant; but am I going to suspect every backpack toting, multi-mobile phone user as a potential ‘bomber’. With the government reportedly looking to recruit some 60,000 people who will be tasked to ‘spy’ on us for the government, it won’t be long before they have an agent in every street reporting on every move that we make.
Another step towards Orwellian Britain.
Some interesting links.
Been away for a few days last week for the big 60 birthday!!
Spent some time in the northern area of the Peak District. What a wonderful part of Britain that area is, still very unspoiled and despite some fairly dull weather, we had a very nice time.
Not trying to be a travelogue post, but here’s are a few places we visited.
Castleton – A very nice Derbyshire village, very well looked after and on the day that we were visiting with very few people about and even more amazing, very few cars.
Found a fantastic second hand antique book shop – Hawkridge Books – on the high street. I could have spent all day inside!!
Eyam – I did no know that the Black Death plague of the 1600’s was also able to jump great distances to infect isolated places. Eyam seems to have been particularly affected, but with some very good quarantining by local people it was well confined to this local area. Again a very quiet, but attractive Peak village.
Buxton – I visit this town many times with my Aunt and Uncle when I was a young child staying with them near Ashbourne many years ago. This was the first time I had been back for many years and was very disappointed to see that like may Spa towns it has suffered a serious decline over the years. It might have been the overcast weather and the grim look of the place, so I’ll reserve final judgment for another visit in the summer. I do hope that it perks up by then.
Enough of the this travel stuff, I have some work to do!!
An interesting list of people that TIME magazine say could be responsible for the current financial meltdown, only one UK person gets a mention, RBS chairman, Sir Fred Goodwin.
Top of the rankings on this list is one time SEC regulator chairman Phil Gramm!I wonder where our FSA chairman would be?
I wonder who we would put on a UK equivalent list? What do you think?
This subject has been in the news recently and a Nursing friend sent this to me via email and encouraged me to post it.
“During a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little fall. She assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics). She said she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes.
They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening.
Ingrid’s husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital. At 6:00 PM Ingrid passed away. She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today. Some don’t die. They end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead.”
A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke…totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.
RECOGNIZING A STROKE:
Thank God for the sense to remember the ‘3’ steps, STR . Read and Learn!
Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.
Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:
S *Ask the individual to SMILE.
T *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE, coherently. (i.e. It is sunny out today.)
R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
NOTE: Another ‘sign’ of a stroke is this: Ask the person to ‘stick’ out his tongue… If the tongue is ‘crooked’, if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke.
If you see any of the above symptoms, call the Paramedics as soon as possible and tell then exactly what has happened.
Well that’s what appeared to happen somewhere in the dark deep Atlantic as we learnt yesterday when it appears that two Nuclear submarines had a close encounter!
Having spent a number of years in the Navy, but never having served on ‘subs’ ( apart from a three day trip on an old diesel boat – too smelly and cramped for me) I found the story quite funny in that the press seemed to think that one of the ‘subs’ should have sounded their horn to let each other know of their presence!
The whole design and aim of modern submarines is to remain as much as possible ‘invisible’, using only passive listening devices to try and detect others that may be out there!
To me, it sounds a bit like a game of ‘chicken’ – how close can we get without being detected – that got out of hand. So although no one was hurt or equipment was damaged, someone’s pride in both Navies has been dented!
I would have thought that with technology of video surveillance in such prevalence above the surface these days, some of that would have been in use below the waves to prevent this sort of the accident. There is nothing so passive as a video camera!
Must get my copy of The Hunt for Red October out again, great film.
What is going on at Shell? One minute they have a new chairman, the next he not going to join.
Seems very strange after it was all so nearly a done deal…
… so instead of moving to BP, Paul Skinner will remain with the mining company (Rio Tinto) and try to secure approval from shareholders for a controversial $19.5 billion cash injection from Chinalco, the metals group that is controlled by the Chinese Government…
See more about the whole story here.
What I don’t understand is, why would the shareholders of a company like Rio Tinto want to possibly hand control of their company over to the Chinese government?
Perhaps Paul Skinner comes from the same school that led Lloyds Group Chief Executive Eric Daniels to state that the purchase of HBOS by Lloyds was such a good deal! But I suppose, that’s the wonder of the finance!
As each day goes by in the current financial I continue to be further amazed.
Now we finds out that the supposed guardian of our banking system, the FSA is to pay many of its employees bonuses for doing such a wonderful job over the past few years!
It now seems that in certain corners of what used to be this great country of ours, the worse you can do, the better you are rewarded!
So it seems that Senior Civil Servants have climbed on the freebie train, if they have not been there already! Seems that a number of deals have been agreed to the sound of PIMMS being poured and strawberries being eaten.
Perhaps the focus should have been on getting a better deal for our taxpayers money and concentrating on making sure that what was bought actually ended up working.
See full story: Civil service mandarins challenged on hospitality culture.
Or is it I’m the Father! that will soon be heard around the south coast of England as the farce of the 13 year father gathers space.
I read many articles over the last two days, but the one albeit a bit light on backgrounds details was this one from the Guardian.co.uk web site.
It describes how a number of other boys are now coming forward claiming to be the father, one aged 16! I thought that a 16 year old male could be prosecuted for having intercourse with a 15 year old girl, maybe that changed and I didn’t notice!
The current situation is well summed up by this quote from the article
You might wonder why these other boys are suddenly so keen to take on responsibility for a baby. But if today’s Independent on Sunday is correct, there’s a fortune to be made from the story, with “at least 15 television companies locked in a fierce battle to make a documentary” about the story and media experts estimating Alfie “could earn up to half a million pounds”.
Still I suppose that he didn’t have to grow up to become famous.
My big question in light of all the recent Social Services scandals is, how come the baby was not immediately taken into care? Perhaps Social Services did not even know what was taking place?
What another sad episode in the ongoing decline of society in the UK!
Beasley's Place 